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With prices for printing digital holiday snaps varying from 15c to $1.20, it can be difficult for consumers to know if they're getting a good deal.
Maryanne Dransfield, New Zealand director of the Photo Marketing Association, said there were "well in excess of 2000" photo kiosks across the
country, a result of the growing popularity of digital cameras and photo-capable phones. There was no indication demand would slow, with sales of digital cameras increasing by around 20 per cent a year.
In comparison, fewer than 100 non-digital cameras were sold in May.
Appliance retailers such as Noel Leeming and Harvey Norman have automated in-store photo kiosks, allowing customers to print their own pictures from a disc or memory stick.
Prices at automated kiosks start around 60c, although competition between retailers in the bigger cities can mean prices vary considerably.
Photo labs - which use processor-operated machines - and online services are the cheapest, some charging just 15c for a standard-sized print.
Most kiosks allow customers to crop, enhance and alter photographs before printing, a service not all online stores offer. The technology is similar to the larger mini-labs favoured by specialist photographic stores, so quality should be reasonably high.
Professionals, of course, disagree. "Sure, we're all dealing with the same machines," Sean Aickin of Wellington Photographic supplies said, "but maintenance of the machine is hugely important. And the bigger machines are colour-calibrated whereas home computers aren't, so the quality of prints straight from a kiosk really depends on the camera."
Veteran Wellington photographer Barry Durrant put photo labs ahead of what he called "hole-in-the-wall" print facilities: "Basically quality is as good as the operator."
He colour corrects and retouches his photographs on a computer at home before having them printed at a local mini-lab. The result is indistinguishable from a hand-print. "I recently had an 8x10 done and their printer gave a faithful result of what I had on my computer. The quality was excellent. It cost $12.95, whereas if it had been done by hand it would have cost anything between $30 and $40."
Harvey Norman and Noel Leeming began installing Fuji kiosks in stores two years ago. Competition has become so fierce that print prices can change overnight.
"The normal price is generally around 50 to 60c but there are promotions on pretty much all the time, so you can get them for as low as 15c depending on where you are," Noel Leeming's Dean Kippenberger said.
The company has 60 kiosks in Auckland, and plans to test several new Hewlett-Packard processors in its Wellington stores from next month.
Kippenberger said markets where digital printing was more established, such as Australia, were experiencing huge growth. "There's millions of digital photographs printed out there annually... I'd say New Zealand was catching up pretty fast."
Online processing, where customers either email or upload the photographs they want printed, is easy and convenient. Companies return the prints by post or courier, and while that adds to the cost, it is still often the cheapest method.
Some, such as FotoPost offer customers free red eye removal and cropping software with pre-pay options.
For those wanting to print at home Consumer magazine this year found inkjet printers used with high-quality paper to be the best choice for colour photographs. However, with the cost of paper and ink, a standard-sized photograph works out at around $1.20, not the most cost-effective option.
And finally, a warning. Everyone mentioned the importance of printing digital pictures, rather storing them on a computer or disc.
"We have had so many stories from people who don't have backup or have stored all their photos on one disc and they've lost that," Noel Leeming group chief executive Andrew Dutkiewicz said.